Its audio-visual manifestation was also strange. And in 2011, when England erupted again and the cities burnt, “Ghost Town” was remembered and replayed. “Ghost Town” is the haunting track of thousands of lost futures. Remember the good old days/before the ghost town/ when we danced and sang/ and the music played ina de boom town".Īnd as Charles Dickens wrote in his “A Christmas Carol”, ghosts are spectres not only of the past, but of the present and future too, traces of what was, is and might have been.
In the song’s short bridge section in the bright key of G♭ major, Hall asks us to, The sounds of life, community, creativity are no longer, “bands don’t play no more”. The streets that The Specials conjure up in “Ghost Town” are inhabited by ghosts dancing is a memory, silence reigns. It is an angry elegy for lost opportunity, lost youth, an acid flavoured lament for what was and what could be. In his book Lynskey argues that “like all great records about social collapse, it seems to both fear and relish calamity” and its ambiguity allows it to soundtrack more than the riots about which it was written. Why must the youth fight against themselves. It articulates anger at a state structure, an economic system and an entrenched animosity towards the young, black, white and poor.
“Ghost Town” was the mournful sound of these riots, a poetic protest. In these neglected parts of London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool the young, the unemployed, and the disaffected fought pitch battles with the police. Deprived, forgotten, run down and angry, these were places where young people, black and white, erupted. It was this anger that Dammers articulated in “Ghost Town”, galvanised both what he had seen on tour around the UK in 1981 and what was happening in the band, which was riven by internal tensions.Įngland was hit by recession and away from rural Skinhead nights, riots were breaking out across its urban areas. Ska and the related Jamaican Rocksteady were its musical foundations, sharpened further by punk attitude and anger.
#GHOST TOWN LYRICS MOD#
One of the clubs referred to in the song was The Locarno in Coventry, the Midlands UK city where the 2 Tone record label started in the late 1970s.Ģ Tone had emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures and its musical roots and the people in it, audiences and bands, were both black and white. The whispered chorus of “This Town/ is coming like a Ghost town” is then heard, followed by front man Terry Hall’s deadpan vocals lamenting how “all the clubs have been closed down” because there is “too much fighting on the dance floor”. Written in E♭, more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety. Starting with a Hammond organ’s six ascending notes before a mournful flute solo, it paints a bleak aural and lyrical landscape. It is not part of any one social movement for change. It does not exhort its listeners into any one particular political view. It’s not explicitly against any one event.
Perhaps because “Ghost Town” cannot be “placed”. “Free Nelson Mandela” by The Special AKA.
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